For a special GCN Town Hall Talk this month, in association with the International Literature Festival Dublin GCN editor and author of two novels, Brian Finnegan, will be joined by a panel of writers to discuss queer Irish literature.

Among the writers on the panel will be John Boyne (pictured), author of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, and more recently the epic Irish gay novel, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, and poet and author of the seminal 1997 lesbian novel, Biography of Desire, Mary Dorcey. Also appearing on the panel will be Denis Kehoe and Claire Hennessy.

Using as a starting point the writing of ‘Tom Lennon’, who in the 1990s published the novels Crazy Love and When Love Comes To Town under a pseudonym for fear of losing his job, the panel will explore and celebrate the increasingly bold and diverse representations of queer people and culture in Irish writing.

Tickets to this event cost €10/€8 and are available at the festival website. GCN Town Hall Talks: Queer Representations In Irish Writing, Belvedere House, May 20, 2pm.